Chinese firm to build $1 billion wind farm in Ukraine

Chinese company PowerChina and Ukrainian WindFarm have signed a contract on building a wind power station with a capacity of 800 megawatt in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Oblast, near towns Manhush and Nikolske.

It will become the biggest wind farm in Europe if offshore wind farms aren’t counted, reads the WindFarm’s statement published on Oct. 30. The project will cost at least $1 billion.

When built, the wind farm will sell its power for the market price, meaning that, unlike all other renewable power producers, PowerChina and WindFarm won’t be selling their electricity to the state for above-market prices — through the country’s green tariff, WindFarm deputy director Aleksandr Charun told the Kyiv Post. Currently, Ukraine has the highest tariff for renewable power in Europe.

According to Charun, WindFarm does all the paperwork, while PowerChina is in charge of constructing the wind farm.

At the moment, the WindFarm is submitting the documents for the project. Once the paperwork is done, the company will sign an agreement with state-run power company Ukrenergo and connect to its networks.

“This project will require the production of some parts like wind turbines to be done in Ukraine,” Charun said. “It will create jobs and pay taxes.”

However, the executive says that it’s unknown when the wind farm will be finished.

PowerChina is a Chinese state-owned enterprise, which mainly develops hydraulic and hydropower infrastructure. It ranks 157th in the Fortune Global 500 list, which measures companies by their revenues.

Renewable energy sources, including wind and solar power and excluding hydropower, secure only 8.1% of the total electricity generated in Ukraine, according to the Energy Ministry of Ukraine.